10 More Celebrities Who Overcame Addiction

In a town where no one ever hears “no,” it’s no wonder why some celebrities have a tough time with addiction. However, along with fame, power and enablers come the resources to kick bad habits and get clean. Here are 10 celebs who sobered up and soared to superstardom after getting help by taking it one day and one step at a time.

Lindsay Lohan: Alcohol + Adderall

After countless trips to rehab, Lindsay Lohan finally admitted outright to being an addict — and this time (knock on wood), it seems to be sticking. She looks great and is finally weaning herself from not only alcohol, but also Adderall. We’re rooting for you, Lilo!

Pacific Coast News

Ben Affleck: Alcohol

After a 2001 Las Vegas bender, Ben Affleck took the “what happened in Vegas stays in Vegas” motto literally and checked into rehab, leaving his alcohol dependency behind him. Now he’s got an Oscar for ‘Argo’ and an adorable brood with Jennifer Garner. Of his addiction, he confessed that he was “one bad night away from an ‘E! True Hollywood Story.'”

Kris Connor, Getty Images

Nicole Richie: Just About Everything

Nicole Richie has been candid about her drug addictions, first to cocaine, then to heroin. “At 18 I had just been doing a lot of cocaine,” she told Diane Sawyer (via PEOPLE). In her 20s, she turned to heroin before getting clean. “I, again, made the decision for myself, this is something I have to do. I have to get off drugs,” she admitted. “This isn’t the life … this was heroin.” She doesn’t miss her past not-so-‘Simple Life.’ “I’m happy for the things I have accomplished,” she said of her new family with Joel Madden. “I’m happy I’m not in that state anymore.”

Jamie McCarthy, Getty Images

Robert Downey, Jr.: Alcohol + Maybe Cocaine

Before he was Oscar bait and ‘Iron Man,’ Robert Downey, Jr. was a human police blotter, with arrests for everything from driving around naked to handling cocaine while wearing a Wonder Woman costume. (Seriously.) From 1996 to 2004, Downey’s addictions nearly got the best of him, but he cleaned up his act in 2005, marrying Susan Levin and becoming a household name once more — but for the right reasons this time.

Kevin Winter, Getty Images

Charlie Sheen: Just About Everything

Charlie Sheen has done more drugs, more stints in rehab and more incidents in handcuffs than we can list. While it’s doubtful he’ll ever be completely clean, Sheen insists he’s fine without rehab. “I don’t believe in rehab anymore,” Sheen griped in 2012. “It’s not for me. It’s not for everyone. It’s not a one-size-fits-all and it didn’t fit me.”

Frederick M. Brown, Getty Images

Drew Barrymore: Alcohol + Cocaine

Drew Barrymore began her career as a child star (remember how adorable she was in ‘E.T.?!’), and the trappings of fame caught up to her early. The starlet had her first drink when she was just nine years old, began smoking pot at age 10 and moved on to cocaine when she was 12, eventually landing in rehab twice by the time she was only 13 years old. And that was after she starred in an anti-drug PSA!

Frederick M. Brown, Getty Images

Phillip Seymour Hoffman: Prescription Drugs + Heroin

Phillip Seymour Hoffman quietly checked himself into rehab for narcotics in May. He admitted he was previously addicted to painkillers and had been clean for 23 years prior to his relapse, which consisted not only of prescription pain meds, but also heroin. He remained in an East Coast detox facility for 10 days, thanking a “a great group of friends and family” for helping him stay clean after the stint.

Ian Gavan, Getty Images

Samuel L. Jackson

Even someone as badass as Samuel L. Jackson sometimes struggles with demons. The ‘Pulp Fiction’ star battled drug addiction and even overdosed on crack cocaine in 1991. How’d he get clean? For one, he got bored — but he admits it’s not always easy. “Yeah, all the experts say that you’ve got to surrender,” he said, “but fortunately I was tired. I had reached that place where I could honestly say to myself: ‘I’ve tried everything else, may as well give this a shot,'” he confessed. “The irony is I never got to taste Cristal. Back then, Moët was my champagne of choice. Now I get sent crates of Cristal and I ain’t never tasted the stuff. Ain’t that a bitch?”

Paul A. Hebert, Getty Images

Gerard Butler

Gerard Butler may be powerful as King Leonidas, but he was powerless against his addictions until he got help. In 2012, he admitted he hadn’t had a drink in 15 years, but it wasn’t that easy. “I think, on a basic level, I have a pretty addictive personality,” Butler said, “both good and bad.” Butler was prescribed painkillers after an on-set injury while shooting ‘Shattered’ in 2007 got worse while filming ‘Coriolanus’ in 2010 and even worse than that when he got another injury on the ‘Chasing Mavericks’ set in December 2011. “It was like somebody sticking a spear in there,” Butler said. “It would get bad, and I’d take something. But I would always stop … I started taking more, and I started taking them very quickly.” He checked himself into treatment before it got out of hand, explaining, “I was actually taking a minimal amount when I went in. It was more about becoming a mental warrior and not letting pain bother you.”

Alberto E. Rodriguez, Getty Images

Oprah Winfrey

The idea of Oprah Winfrey having any vices seems blasphemous, but the Big O is one of the first to admit she’s got her struggles, too. She admitted on her eponymous talk show to using crack cocaine when she was abused as a young woman. “Years ago I had a woman on my show who was talking about drugs and how she was addicted to her boyfriend,” Winfrey said. “I had used drugs in my 20’s with this boyfriend and I was more addicted to the boyfriend than I was to the drugs, so the admission to using drugs on television was the biggest thing.”

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